2009 sucks

So far this year, and in no particular order:

• My mother-in-law slipped on some ice and broke her arm - both bones, just above the wrist. She didn't need any surgery, and seems in good spirits, but 2 months in a cast might change that. One of her sons is with her right now, another is going at the weekend, and we'll probably go up the weekend after that.

• My brother-in-law's apartment flooded when a pipe burst in the apartment above him. So he, his two kids, and his puppy are homeless for a month while everything is fixed. Luckily his insurance covers everything, including temporary accommodation.

• A good friend is reluctantly leaving Vancouver and going back to the UK, largely because of the lack of affordable day care. This is the second good friend I've lost for the same reason in a 6 month period, and I'm thinking of opening my own day care so my remaining friends will stay here.

• The awesome tenant in our basement suite is thinking of moving to the US in the spring to join her boyfriend. As Mr E Man said, "make him come here! We'll never find another tenant who'll look after our cats and give us home-made butter tarts with the rent money!"

• The state of the roads means I won't be able to cycle until next week at the earliest, and then only on the main roads - it could take weeks to clear the side streets. Until then I'm stuck taking the fucking bus, which I hate. Yeah, I know things are much worse in Edmonton / Toronto / Wherever, but that's part of the reason I didn't want to live there and chose to move to Vancouver instead!

• The oh-so-pretty lattice work arch over our gate, that the purple clematis climbs over in summer, collapsed under the weight of the snow and is now lying sadly in a 3-foot snow drift in the garden.
  

• Several other friends are either sick or having various personal crises.

Seriously, I think I'd like to skip 2009 and go straight to 2010.